CLIentTracker is a desktop Customer Relationship Management (CRM) designed for property agents, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while retaining a clean and simple visual interface. It enables efficient management of clients, property listings, notes, and meetings through commands such as add, edit, find, and list, allowing users to update and retrieve information faster than traditional GUI-based systems. For agents who are comfortable with typing, this significantly improves productivity in day-to-day operations.

Unlike many web-based CRMs, CLIentTracker works fully offline, making it reliable in environments with poor or unstable connectivity, such as property viewings or on-site visits. Core actions like searching, editing, or scheduling meetings are performed instantly, without delays from loading or syncing. All data is automatically saved when the application closes, ensuring records remain secure without manual intervention.

Built for agents who value speed, reliability, and control, CLIentTracker helps users focus on clients rather than tools in fast-paced environments.

:page_facing_up: Contents

:rocket: Quick Start

CLIentTracker is a desktop CRM designed for property agents who prefer working quickly from the command line while still having a clean desktop interface.

Installation

  1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed on your computer.
    Mac users: Ensure you have the precise JDK version prescribed here.

  2. Download the latest .jar file from here.

  3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your CLIentTracker.

  4. Open the folder where your CLIentTracker is currently located, double click to run CLIentTracker and a User Interface similar to the one below should appear in a few seconds with some sample data loaded.
    Ui

Try It Out

  1. Type commands into the command box and press Enter to execute them.

  2. Try these example commands:

    • list to list all contacts
    • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 to add a contact
    • delete 87438807 to delete the contact with the phone number 87438807 (y to confirm deletion)
    • clear to delete all contacts (y to confirm clear)
    • find n/John to search for contacts by name
    • exit to close the application

  3. Continue with the sections below for full command details, or jump straight to the Command Summary.

Want to start fresh? Use clear and confirm with y to remove the sample contacts and begin with an empty contact list.

:clipboard: Command Summary

:information_source: Notes about the command format:

  • Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by the user.

    • e.g. in add n/NAME, NAME is a parameter which can be used as add n/John Doe.

    • Items in square brackets are optional.
      • e.g n/NAME [t/TAG] can be used as n/John Doe t/Buyer or as n/John Doe.
    • Items with …​ after them can be used multiple times including zero times.
      • e.g. [t/TAG]…​ can be used as   (i.e. 0 times), t/Buyer, t/Landlord etc.
    • Parameters can be in any order.
      • e.g. if the command specifies n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER, p/PHONE_NUMBER n/NAME is also acceptable.
    • Extraneous parameters for help, list, exit, favourites, and undo will be ignored.
      • e.g. if the command specifies help 123, it will be interpreted as help.
    • clear does not accept trailing arguments.
      • e.g. clear and clear are accepted, but clear 123 is invalid.

    • TAG is not case-sensitive. Valid tags: (“Renter”, “Landlord”, “Buyer”, “Seller”).

    • If you are using a PDF version of this document, be careful when copying and pasting commands that span multiple lines as space characters surrounding line-breaks may be omitted when copied over to the application.
Action Description Format, Examples
Add Adds a new person add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [d/DETAILS] [t/TAG]…​
e.g., add n/James Ho p/22224444 e/jamesho@example.com a/123, Clementi Rd, 1234665 d/Looking to buy in north t/BUYER
Edit Edits an existing person edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [d/DETAILS] [t/TAG]…​
e.g.,edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com d/Updated work details
Find Finds persons by name or phone find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS] for name search
find p/PHONE_NUMBER for phone search
e.g., find James Jake or find p/98765432
Delete Deletes a person delete PHONE
e.g., delete 91234567
Clear Clears all entries clear
Mark Adds contact into favourites mark INDEX
e.g., mark 1
Unmark Removes contact from favourites unmark INDEX
e.g., unmark 1
Meeting Adds or clears a meeting for a contact meeting INDEX DATE_TIME or meeting INDEX clear
e.g., meeting 1 mon 2pm
Undo Undo previous changes undo
List Lists all persons list
Favourites View favourites favourites
Help Shows help message help
Exit Exits the app exit

:gear: Features

Adding a person: add

Adds a new contact

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [d/DETAILS] [t/TAG]…​

Parameters:

  • p/ : Phone number of the new contact (Unique identifier; must contain only digits and be 8-15 digits long)
    • Note: For international numbers with country codes, omit the plus (+) and any spaces. For example, use 6512345678 instead of +65 1234 5678.
  • n/ : Name of the new contact (Must be 1-50 characters)
  • e/ : Email of the new contact [optional]
  • a/ : Address of the new contact [optional] (Must be 1-255 characters, or empty to represent no address)
  • d/ : Details of the new contact [optional] (Must be under 512 characters, or empty to represent no details)
  • t/ : Tags of the new contact [optional] (Valid tags: “Renter”, “Landlord”, “Buyer”, “Seller”)
:bulb: Tip: A person can have any number of tags (including 0)

Behavior:

  • If a contact with the same phone number already exists, the new contact will not be added.
  • Phone numbers must contain only digits and be 8-15 digits long.
  • Name must be 1-50 characters and contain only alphanumeric characters and spaces.
  • Details will default to empty if parameter not used.
  • Details must not be over 512 characters and cannot be empty.
  • Address will default to empty if parameter not used.
  • Address must be 1-255 characters if provided, or empty to represent no address.

Examples:

  • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01
  • add n/Betsy Crowe a/Newgate Prison p/12345678 t/BUYER
  • add n/Alex Yeoh p/87438807 e/alexyeoh@example.com a/Blk 30 Geylang Street 29, #06-40 d/Looking for apartment near city

Editing a person: edit

Edits an existing person in CLIentTracker.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [d/DETAILS] [t/TAG]…​

Parameters:

  • INDEX : The index of the person to edit. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list. The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • p/ : Phone number of the new contact (Unique identifier; must contain only digits and be 8-15 digits long)
    • Note: For international numbers with country codes, omit the plus (+) and any spaces. For example, use 6512345678 instead of +65 1234 5678.
  • n/ : Name of the new contact (Must be 1-50 characters)
  • e/ : Email of the contact [optional]
  • a/ : Address of the new contact [optional] (Must be 1-255 characters, or empty to represent no address)
  • d/ : Details of the new contact [optional] (Must be under 512 characters, or empty to represent no details)
  • t/ : Tags of the new contact [optional] (Valid tags: “Renter”, “Landlord”, “Buyer”, “Seller”)

Behavior:

  • The index field is mandatory and must be a positive integer smaller than the number of contacts.
  • At least one of the fields must be provided.
  • Existing values will be updated to the input values.
  • Phone numbers must contain only digits and be 8-15 digits long.
  • When editing tags, the existing tags of the person will be removed i.e adding of tags is not cumulative.
  • You can remove all the person’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.
  • Editing details replaces existing ones (not cumulative).
  • Use d/, e/, or a/ with no value to clear details, email, or address respectively.
  • Contacts with duplicate phone numbers will not be updated.

Examples:

  • edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email address of the 1st person to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
  • edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.
  • edit 3 d/ Clears the details of the 3rd person.
  • edit 4 e/ Clears the email of the 4th person.
  • edit 5 a/ Clears the address of the 5th person.

Important Notes:

  • If you want to change a specific field, remember to have a white space before the prefix
    • ❌ edit 1 a/yishunp/12345678
    • ✅ edit 1 a/yishun p/12345678
    • ✅ edit 1 d/want Sentosa/Yishun

Locating persons: find

Search for persons using keywords across all fields or within specific fields.

Format:

  • General search:
    find KEYWORD[, KEYWORD]...

  • Field-specific search:
    find PREFIX/KEYWORD[, KEYWORD] PREFIX/KEYWORD[, KEYWORD]...

Prefixes:

  • n/ — name
  • p/ — phone
  • a/ — address
  • e/ — email
  • d/ — details
  • t/ — tags
  • Searches across name, phone, address, email, and details
  • ❗ Does not search through tags
  • Case-insensitive (alex = Alex)
  • Supports partial matches (lex → Alex)
  • Keywords are comma-separated
  • If no commas are used, the entire input is treated as a single keyword
  • Matches if any keyword is found (OR logic)

Examples:

  • find alex
  • find alex, bob
  • find alex bob (searches for “alex bob” as one phrase)
  • find 9876
  • Searches only within specified field(s)
  • Case-insensitive and supports partial matches
  • Keywords must be comma-separated

Examples:

  • find n/Alex
  • find p/9876
  • find t/buyer
  • find n/Alex, Bob p/9123
  • find t/buyer, seller

Rules:

  • Keywords within the same prefix use OR
    • find n/Alex, Bob → name contains Alex or Bob
  • Different prefixes use AND
    • find n/Alex p/9123 → name contains Alex AND phone contains 9123

💡 More Prefix rules:

  • Prefixes are case-sensitive and must be in lowercase
  • ❌ N/Alex is invalid

  • ✅ n/Alex is valid

  • Prefixes must be preceded by a space
    • ⚠️ find n/Alexp/1234, otherwise assumed to be a keyword
    • ✅ find n/Alex p/1234
  • If prefixes are not properly separated, they are treated as part of the same field
    • find n/Alexp/1234 is interpreted as searching for the name "Alexp/1234"

⚠️Important Notes:

  • You cannot mix general search and prefix search
    • ❌ find alex p/9876
  • Commas are required if you want to separate multiple keywords, otherwise it’s ok
    • ⚠️ find n/Alex Bob, this is okay if searching for “Alex Bob”
    • ✅ find n/Alex, Bob
  • To search by tags, you must use the t/ prefix
    • ⚠️ find buyer, this is okay if searching for “buyer” not in tag
    • ✅ find t/buyer
  • Keywords must contain at least one letter or number
    • ❌ find !!!
    • ❌ find n/@@@
    • ✅ find alex123
    • ✅ find #02-25

Adding a meeting: meeting

Adds or clears a meeting for a client identified by the displayed index number.

Format: meeting INDEX DATE_TIME or meeting INDEX clear

  • The INDEX refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
  • Use clear to remove an existing meeting from the selected client.
  • The DATE_TIME can be entered in various flexible formats:

Relative Date formats:

  • Today - today’s date
  • Tomorrow - tomorrow’s date
  • Monday/Mon - next Monday
  • Tuesday/Tue - next Tuesday
  • Wednesday/Wed - next Wednesday
  • Thursday/Thu - next Thursday
  • Friday/Fri - next Friday
  • Saturday/Sat - next Saturday
  • Sunday/Sun - next Sunday

Static Date formats:

  • 15 Mar (day month)
  • 15 Mar 2030 (day month year)
  • 15 March (full month name)
  • 15 March 2030 (full month name)
  • 15/3/2030 (slash separators)
  • 15-3-2030 (dash separators)
  • 15.3.2030 (dot separators)

Time formats (Must be combined with date):

  • 4pm (12-hour format)
  • 4:30pm (12-hour with minutes)
  • 4.30pm (12-hour with dot minutes)
  • 1600 (24-hour format)
  • 14:30 (24-hour with colon)

Combined examples:

  • meeting 1 15 Mar 2030 4pm
  • meeting 2 15 March 2030 4:30pm
  • meeting 3 15/3/2030 1600
  • meeting 4 15-3-2030 14:30
  • meeting 5 15.3.2030 1630
  • meeting 6 today 4pm (today at 4 PM)
  • meeting 7 tomorrow 9am (tomorrow at 9 AM)
  • meeting 8 monday 2pm (next Monday at 2 PM)
  • meeting 9 fri 1600 (next Friday at 4 PM)
  • meeting 1 clear (clears the meeting for the 1st person)

⚠️ Important Notes

  • Meeting dates and times must be in the future
  • If no time is specified, defaults to 11:59 PM (23:59)
  • All date/time inputs are case-insensitive
  • When using (day month) format, avoid using (24-hour format)
    • 20 april 2359 will result in year 2359; Instead use 20 april 11:59

Deleting a person : delete

Deletes the specified person from CLIentTracker.

Format: delete PHONE

  • Deletes the person with PHONE.
    • The PHONE refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
    • The PHONE must match fully ​
    • Confirm with y/n after the delete command is entered. Confirmation input is case-insensitive, so y, Y, n, and N are accepted.

Examples:

  • delete 91234567 deletes the person with said phone number in CLIentTracker.
  • delete 912 is invalid and will throw a error message

Clearing all entries : clear

Deletes all entries from CLIentTracker, including favourites.

  • Confirm with y/n after the clear command is entered. Confirmation input is case-insensitive, so y, Y, n, and N are accepted.
  • clear only works without trailing arguments. clear and clear are accepted, but clear 123 is invalid.

Format: clear

Favourites: mark and unmark

Add or remove contacts from favourites

Format: mark INDEX or unmark INDEX

  • Mark INDEX adds the contact at the specified index to favourites.
  • Unmark INDEX removes the contact at INDEX from favourites
  • INDEX refers to the index number shown on the displayed person list
  • INDEX must be a valid number in the list

Examples:

  • mark 1
    mark 1 image

Undo previous changes: undo

Reverts the most recent change made to CLIentTracker contacts.

Format: undo

  • Restores the contact list to its previous state before the last modifying command
  • If there are no previous changes to undo in the current session, an error message is shown
  • undo works with or without trailing arguments. Any trailing arguments are ignored.

    ⚠️ Important Notes

    • Undo will reset any active filters applied on the list.

Listing all persons: list

Shows a list of all persons in CLIentTracker.

Format: list

  • list works with or without trailing arguments. Any trailing arguments are ignored.

Viewing favourites: favourites

Displays a list containing only contacts marked as favourites. Favourite contacts are those previously flagged by the user using the mark command

favourites message

Format: favourites

  • favourites works with or without trailing arguments. Any trailing arguments are ignored.

Viewing help: help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page The user can open their preferred browser and paste the provided URL to access it They can also manually close the help window by clicking the close button or pressing the Escape key.

help message

Format: help

  • help works with or without trailing arguments. Any trailing arguments are ignored.

Exiting the program: exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

  • exit works with or without trailing arguments. Any trailing arguments are ignored.

:floppy_disk: Data Storage & Saving

CLIentTracker is designed to be fast and worry-free — your data is automatically saved after every command.

There is no need to press a save button. Everything is stored locally on your device, allowing you to:

  • Work completely offline
    • Access your data instantly
    • Avoid losing changes due to unsaved progress

All data is stored in:

[CLIentTracker file location]/data/addressbook.json

CLIentTracker is intended for medium to moderately large contact lists. Performance may degrade for very large datasets, especially above 50,000 to 100,000 contacts, depending on your device’s memory and CPU.

:pencil2: Editing the data file

CLIentTracker data are saved automatically as a JSON file [CLIentTracker file location]/data/addressbook.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, CLIentTracker will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause CLIentTracker to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside of the acceptable range). Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

Email Rules

Emails must follow the format local-part@domain.

Format rules

  • The local-part:
    • May contain alphanumeric characters and + - . _
    • Parentheses (( and )) are not allowed
    • Must not start or end with a special character
  • The @ symbol separates the local-part and the domain

Domain rules

  • The domain consists of labels separated by periods (.)
  • Each label:
    • Is at least 2 characters long
    • Starts and ends with an alphanumeric character
    • May contain hyphens (-) in between

Length and optionality

  • Email length must be between 1 and 254 characters
  • If the email parameter is omitted or left empty (e/), the contact will have no email

:question: FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Install the app on the other computer and overwrite the empty data file it creates with the file that contains the data from your previous CLIentTracker home folder.

:warning: Known Issues

  1. When using multiple screens, if you move the application to a secondary screen, and later switch to using only the primary screen, the GUI will open off-screen. The remedy is to delete the preferences.json file created by the application before running the application again.
  2. If you minimize the Help Window and then run the help command (or use the Help menu, or the keyboard shortcut F1) again, the original Help Window will remain minimized, and no new Help Window will appear. The remedy is to manually restore the minimized Help Window.